The minimum fluidisation velocities of burned oil sand particles were investigated in a fluidised bed of I.D. 0.3?m and height 3?m based on de-fluidisation method. The solid particles were four types of burned oil sand particles from different regions and depths and in different physical properties. A modified Noda equation [Noda et al., 46, 149154 (1986)] was built to predict the minimum fluidisation velocities of the burned oil sand particles. The results showed that the burned oil sand particles had very wide size distribution and their fluidisation processes could be divided into fixed, partial fluidisation and full fluidisation stages, similar with binary-particle fluidised beds. The calculated minimum fluidisation velocities were in good agreement with the experimental data. (c) 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering